To quote VentureBeat, “It’s the hot new CxO.” CMTO stands for Chief Marketing Technology Officer, a new role that’s a cross between the traditional Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Technology Officer. The role is focused on marketing, but not just on the soft and squishy creative side that CMOs have traditionally focused on.
CMTOs use strategy, technology, marketing and analytical expertise to help companies exploit and leverage the vast amounts of customer and market data from sources as diverse as competitive intelligence, web analytics, customer databases, marketing campaigns and trending social media discussions.
In addition to the sourcing and management of the technology pieces being bolted together to create customized marketing automation solutions, the CMTO is charged with delivering co-ordinated and measurable marketing campaigns across multiple channels. The CMTO eliminates the subjective opinions that have historically driven marketing strategies and replaces them with data and technical analysis that clearly identify the ROI for all marketing initiatives.
Gartner predicts that by 2017 CMOs will spend more on IT than CTOs. Their research has identified that:
- In 2011 B2B and B2C marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue were almost three times as high (10 percent) as IT budgets (3.6 percent).
- In 2012 IT budgets are expected to grow 4.7 percent, while all marketing budgets, in general, are predicted to grow 9 percent, and high tech marketing budgets, more specifically, are expected to increase 11 percent.
- On average, nearly one-third (30 percent) of marketing-related technology and services is bought by marketing already and that marketing now influences almost half of all purchases.
As the research identifies, the roles of the CMOs and CTOs are converging and someone now needs to take ownership of the digital marketing goals and outcomes. Technology and marketing are now inextricably tied. Future business success depends on the creation of a totally new kind of cross-functional organization, an organization with a Chief Technology Marketing Officer … a CTMO that can help the CEO, CMO, CTO, and CIO to translate the marketing technology landscape into business growth.
